Office for Mac will soon support third-party add-in programs

As part of Microsoft’s Build 2016 developer conference, the company revealed that Office users on the Mac will soon be able to access the many third-party add-in programs that have been released for those apps.

Microsoft stated:

Since introducing a new Officeadd-in platform with Office 2013, we’ve collaborated with companies like Uber, Yelp and PickIt, whose services are integrated directly into Office. Today, we’re excited to announce the extension of add-ins to Office for Mac (available later this spring), centralized deployment and programmatic creation of solution-specific ribbons and buttons.

For example, Starbucks is developing an Outlook add-in that allows people to send Starbucks e-gifts within Outlook and schedule meetings at nearby Starbucks locations instead of a conference room. In the future, Starbucks plans to enable employees to mobile order right within the Office experience—offering convenience and saving time.